


Moonlit Masquerade: Read all about it!

by Rohad



Series: Moonlit Masquerade [10]
Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, Gay, Lumity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-16
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:47:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 19,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27037438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rohad/pseuds/Rohad
Summary: Front page coverage
Relationships: Amity Blight/Luz Noceda, Emira Blight/Viney
Series: Moonlit Masquerade [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1935769
Comments: 127
Kudos: 820
Collections: We_Love_Lumity





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Here's part 1
> 
> Enjoy

It's a normal Monday after school following the fall break, and Luz is still sitting in the Potions classroom after the bell.

The rest of the class had already left, but her teacher wanted to speak to her.

So Luz sits, long after the bell has screamed, waiting for her potions professor to come back, she had to run a quick errand, but she wanted to speak to Luz before she left for the day.

She's nervous. She can only assume this is about the test they had today. Luz had been pretty confident in her performance, she thought she did really well, nothing exploded and all her potions came out perfect, or at least she thought so, so she can't imagine what the professor wants to speak to her about.

She taps her foot nervously on the floor as the seconds tick by. She knows Amity is waiting for her, but considering what a fanatic her girlfriend is when it comes to grades she would probably excuse her delay to talk to the teacher.

She waits about twenty minutes before her professor finally returns. 

"Forgive the delay, Miss. Noceda, I had something urgent to take care of. Now, I'm sure you're wondering why I wished to speak with you, yes?"

"Yes, ma'am." Luz nods and gulps. The professor seems to catch on to her worry and smiles.

"No need to look so grim," she laughs. "I wanted to tell you that you scored perfectly on our test today," she says, and Luz blinks for a second before brightening. 

"Really?" She holds her hands up to her mouth, but they can't hide the bright grin that splits her face.

"Really, your potions were exemplary, the highest quality I've seen in some time." The older witch holds her hands behind her back and nods.

Luz can't help but squeal at that. She tries to give her all to her many tracks, but some come more easily than others. She still struggles with abominations due to the nature of their summoning, illusions, and plants can be tricky too, but the rest of her courses go fairly well the majority of the time, but she seems to excel at beast keeping and potions. So, while most of her classmates abhor Mondays, they're one of Luz's favorite days of the week, a close second only to Tuesday, because while she may not be great at abomination magic, it's still the one day of the week she has class with Amity, which edges out the accomplished feeling she has at the end of her Monday classes.

"Yes!" she cheers, jumping up, and her teacher chuckles.

"Yes, indeed. Actually, what I really wished to tell you was that your performance over the last few months has been a steady upward climb since the explosion you caused during your first week in my classes," she goes on and Luz chuckles awkwardly at that.

No one was going to forget that little incident with the rash potion gone wrong it seemed. 

"In fact, in past weeks, you have worked yourself up to being the top student in the track, despite you only having potions one day a week." She lifts a hand making a spell circle appear, and a small gold star poof's its way to the front of Luz"s uniform. The words 'top student' spelled out across it.

Luz is stunned by that. For once in a handful of times in her life, she's stunned speechless. She always did fairly well in school back in the human world, but she was never exactly going to be the valedictorian. She knows at the magic schools, it's a coveted thing, to be at the top of your track. She never thought too much about it, she just wanted to study magic, she certainly hadn't been aspiring to reach the top of any of her classes; she never even considered it possible. A lot of her friends were at the top of their tracks, Amity was the top student of the abominations track and Willow in plants, and the twins in illusions. 

Now she was the top student in potions? 

"I… I'm the top student in potions, me?" She points at herself disbelievingly. 

Her teacher nods.

"Yes, you, Miss Noceda. I have few students who work as diligently in my class as you. You should be very proud." She smiles. 

"I… I am! Thank you." Luz beams proudly, vibrating with energy. Some days it feels like she'll never be a real witch, but today? Today she knows she is.

She's the top student in the potions track, Luz Noceda, human witch!

She doesn't think she's ever felt so accomplished. Now she somewhat understands why Amity went bananas about her top student star the day they met.

Her teacher nods.

"Yes, in fact, I was hoping I might be able to convince you to switch solely into the potions track. You would learn so much more if you were in my class all week as opposed to just Mondays," she says.

"Oh…," Luz says, frowning. Her teacher is right of course, if she focused on one track she would probably do even better. She really likes all her other classes too though. If she switched into potions from multitrack, she wouldn't have plants with Willow, illusions with Gus, or abominations with Amity anymore.

She chews her lips.

Her professor seems to catch on to her reluctance.

"It's not a decision you would need to make now, or anytime soon, of course. I'd just like you to know that the offer is always open, you would excel even more if you exclusively studied potions, but so long as you remain diligent in class, one day a week seems to be sufficient," she says and Luz is smiling again. 

"Of course, thank you." She nods.

"Have a good day, Miss. Noceda," she dismisses and Luz grabs her bag and runs out of the classroom, dashing down the halls with a wide grin.

She has to tell Amity!

She hurries down the front steps and finds her girlfriend's waiting just to the side of them, out in the open. School has been over for about half an hour, so the courtyard is deserted.

"Luz, what took you so long?" she asks, blinking, she can practically see the roiling energy coming off her.

"My potions teacher wanted to talk to me! I'm the top student in the potions track!" She gushes proudly, pointing at her star badge, and Amity gasps.

"Luz, that's great!" She smiles, jumping to hug her. Luz is grinning hard and wraps her arms around Amity's waist, lifting her off the ground, they both laugh as she spins them around in dizzying, gleeful circles.

Luz finally sets her down and they're both still grinning madly.

Amity knows better than anyone how Luz struggles with feeling like she belongs, like her struggles are worth it, like she's a real witch making progress, and she can tell how happy she is.

She can't help herself and grabs Luz’s cheeks, pressing a heartfelt kiss to her girlfriend's lips.

"I'm so proud of you, Luz," she says, pressing her forehead against hers. She can see the surprise in those bright, chocolate-colored eyes.

As though she hadn't been happy before, those words make Luz's heart swell, and then she leans in to kiss Amity again, making the green-haired girl giggle against her mouth. She's just so excited and the energy rubs off on the other girl easily. If Luz is happy, so is she.

"Thanks… I can't wait to tell Willow and Gus! You guys are at the top of your tracks, now I am too! I'm a witch too!" She bounced excitedly on her toes and Amity smiled at her.

"You were already a witch, querida," she says and Luz just grins, and no one's sure who leans in again first, but then they’re kissing again before finally heading around the building to the portal glyph, giggling.

~

"Mom!" Luz shouts as she practically kicks the door open to the owl house.

Lilith and Eda are sitting on the couch with King when she bursts through the door. They all jump up when it slams open.

"What, what is it? What's on fire? Who died, do I need to hide a body?!" Eda shouts, but then Luz is in front of her, jumping up and down excitedly and grabbing hold of the front of her dress.

"I did it, me!" she shouts.

Eda blinks at her, trying to figure out what the hell is going on.

"What, what did you do?" She puts her hands on Luz's shoulders to stop the bouncing, the kid is making her dizzy.

"I'm the top student in the potions track!" She grins brightly up at her, and Eda's eyes zero in on the little gold star pinned to her kid's chest.

"Congratulations, Luz!" Lilith is the first to catch on and smiles at the girl.

Luz beams at her before turning back to Eda.

Eda still has mixed feelings about school as a whole, but the fact that it's her kid, her inherently magicless kid, who is top of one of the tracks, beating out all the other kids, born with magic, makes her chest swell with pride.

"Hey, that's great, Luz!" she says and Luz's grin doubles as she throws herself at Eda in a hug, who squeezes her back. King wraps himself around one of her legs too.

"We should celebrate!" Eda declares. "It's not every day you beat out all those other little snot-nosed brats," she says. Lilith rolls her eyes at that but agrees to the first half of the sentiment.

"I believe we have some gorgon fruit in the kitchen…," she trails off and Luz gasps.

"Amity's Tostones?" She looks up at them, starry-eyed and Eda chuckles. She'd had to nearly bribe the youngest Blight to get her recipe for Luz. She had been very reluctant to part with it, but even Amity Blight had her price.

"Tostones!" She says.

"Tostones!" King shouts, and he and Luz race into the kitchen.

~  
Luz couldn't be happier as she walks to school Tuesday morning.

She is the top student in the potions track and she has class with Amity today. Could it be a better day?

She happily kicks at the crunchy, wilted leaves on her path to school. It's cold today and her cheeks feel numb, but no measly cold weather can bring her down today!

When she gets to school Gus and Willow are waiting out front, but her girlfriend is nowhere in sight. It's still quite early, and few students have arrived yet, but it's weird Amity isn't there yet.

"Hey, guys." She grins and waves as she runs up to them. "Notice anything different about me today?" She asks with a grin, puffing out her chest where her top student badge is displayed.

Gus hums, tapping a finger to his chin as he looks at her with squinted eyes.

"Did you get a haircut?" he asks.

"Uh, no…," she says, Willow notices the little badge immediately though and gasps.

"You got a top student badge!" She shouts and Gus sees it and gasps, slapping both his hands to his cheeks and Luz grins brightly.

"In which track?!" he asks.

"Potions," she says. 

"Congratulations!" Her friends grab her and squeeze, and Luz laughs, hugging them back.

"What's with all the hugging, should we be hugging you too?" A voice startles them apart and they turn to see the Blight twins walking up to them.

"Oh, hey Ed, Em," Luz greets the twins.

"We were just congratulating Luz on making top student in the potions track," Willow tells them.

"Hey, congrats!" Ed high fives her. 

"Yeah, nice!" Emira smiles.

"Thanks, what are you guys doing here? You're not usually here this early."

"We are mere emissaries, come bearing a message for our fair sisters' lady love." Edric bows dramatically and Emira rolls her eyes.

"Amity is at home, she has a cold, she wanted us to let you know so you wouldn't worry," Emira says and Edric pouts.

"You're no fun," he mumbles.

"Aw, it's Tuesday too… well, I'll call her later," Luz says. The twins' smile and nod.

"Guess we might as well head in then," Gus says and she nods they head inside with the twins.

They don't get more than a few feet into the main hall when they see all the posters posted up on the walls. 

"Something going on?" Luz blinks, these weren't here yesterday after school.

Ed walks to the nearest one and pulls it off the wall and looks at it. His eyes blow wide and his mouth drops open in absolute horror.

"What, are they auctioning off another teacher?" Emira asks, looking at it over his shoulder, and any words she was about to say die in her throat, both twins have gone pale and they look up at Luz. The three underclassmen are worried now.

"What, what is it?" Luz grabs the paper from Ed's limp grip. Willow and Gus crowd in to look over her shoulder.

Luz thinks her heart has stopped, and her blood is like ice in her veins, chilling her to the core. 

Plastered front and center on the poster is a picture of her.

Her and Amity, kissing next to the stairs yesterday after school.

The letters, in big, bold, black calligraphy letters read simply: 'HUMAN KISSER' 

Her hand is shaking and her head whips up to really look at the posters on the walls, and the same poster is pasted everywhere, on the lockers and every wall.

Willow and Gus stare at the paper for a long time before turning to Luz who looks like a ghost, and they're not even sure she's breathing, except her whole body is trembling.

"They're everywhere!" Edric is the first to speak, eyes darting wildly across the hall at the papers.

"Luz…," Willow says, shocking her out of her stupor. It takes a moment to make her tongue form words. 

"Pull them down…," she croaks.

"What?" Gus asks.

"Pull them down, pull them all down!" she screams, taking off at a run and ripping down any poster in her reach as she goes. 

The twins jerk and look at each other, nodding before twirling their fingers and several clones pop into existence, and they take off running, ripping down the posters as quickly as they can. 

Gus and Willow follow, running up and down the halls of the building. There are literally hundreds of the things pasted to every surface. Vines and clones of the younger illusion student rip down the halls, grabbing them as quickly as they can.

Emira rips several posters down from the stables near the beast keeping track and runs right by her girlfriend and her other two multitrack friends.

"Em?" Viney blinks as her girlfriend runs by with a look of panic etched into her face, but Emira doesn't have the time and tosses one of the posters to Viney as she runs by.

"Take them down!" she shouts as she shoots down another hall.

Viney looks at the poster, Jerbo, and Barkus lean in to look and their eyes go wide. Viney looks up, panicked.

"Guys, run, pull down any of these you see!" She yells as she takes off down another hall and starts ripping the posters down as she goes. The other two multitrackers nod and take off in opposite directions.

"They're fucking everywhere!" Edric shouts as he runs past his sister.

They are, the posters are pasted to every surface from the main halls to the beast keeping stables all the way to the greenhouse and the grudgby field. 

They all dash madly across campus, pulling down as many as they can.

Eventually, more students start to come in and see the posters, they just can't get to them all in time.

The whispering starts quickly, and it won't take long before the whole school knows about Luz and Amity.

They meet back out in front of the school where they find the human sitting on the front steps, a pile of crumpled posters at her feet, and her head buried in her hands, her shoulders are shaking.

Gus and Willow don't know what to say as they look down at their friend sadly, and the twins only frown, clutching the posters in their hands. Viney clenches a shaking fist. Jerbo and Barkus are trustworthy, and she had already told them about her girlfriend and their friends' secret girlfriend. They feel for their younger fellow multitrack student, they know from Viney's relationship with Emira just what this means. They stand around looking awkwardly at each other, hoping someone will say something.

No one knows what to say to Luz.

"Morning, losers."

All of them except Luz look up at Boscha, standing in front of the steps and smiling at them.

"Go away, Boscha." Willow spits, none of them are in the mood for the school's resident bully.

"And miss out on this? In your dreams. Where's Amity, she already run home crying?" She asks looking around. "Guess she didn't like my surprise." She grins.

Luz's head snaps up at that, tears are running silently down her cheeks.

"You did this?" Her voice is barely above a whisper.

"Why?!" Gus shouts. Boscha rolled her eyes.

"Pfft, Amity thinks she's all that, well it was time to teach her a lesson, bring her down a peg or two," she flips a lock of hair over her shoulder.

Edric and Emira both snarl at the younger girl, lips pulled back over fangs. Willow and Gus shake with rage.

"So when I saw that sickening display in the courtyard after school yesterday, I figured this was perfect. I mean, her and the human?” She laughs, pointing at Luz. “Her reputation will never recover from this," she huffs with a smirk, and the bell chooses that moment to scream it's first warning. "Well, later losers."

She struts past them up and stairs toward the door.

Luz's heart is pounding in her ears and her breathing is quick and shallow.

Boscha did this…

Because of her, Amity's parents were going to know.

They're going to make it so she can never see her again. 

The one person she loves more than anything...

She shoots to her feet and with a strangled scream, bolts up the stairs toward Boscha, who turns around to look with wide, fearful eyes at the human about to pounce on her. 

Before Luz can reach her and start pummeling her face in, Gus and Willow tackle her.

"No, Luz, you can't fight at school!" Willow shouts.

"You just made top student, you'll lose it if you bash in her stupid face!" Gus yells.

Luz hears them, but she doesn't care, all she can see is red, and all she feels is the intense desire to make Boscha hurt as much as she is right now.

"I don't care, let me go!" she snarls, thrashing against their hold and almost breaks free until Viney and the other multi trackers grab hold of her. 

Boscha sneers at her but quickly retreats into the school when the twins take a menacing step forward.

When she's gone, all the anger seems to drain out of Luz, and she slumps to her knees on the stairs, feeling lifeless as tears drip from the corners of her eyes. Gus and Willow hold her tightly.

Her friends huddle around her, not saying anything for a long while till she's quieted. The bell has long since started class.

"I have to tell Amity…," she finally sniffles. "Before she sees it on penstagram or something stupid like that," she bites.

The twins glanced at each other before turning to her.

"We'll take you to the house, right now," Emira says and Edric nods

Luz nods, wiping at her eyes with the back of her arm.

"Do you want us to go with you?" Willow asks quietly. Luz shakes her head and reaches down to pick up one of the scattered posters.

"I need to do this alone… and I don't know how Amity is going to react." That's a bald-faced lie and she knows it, they all do. She knows exactly how her girlfriend is going to react to this, and all their friends don't need to be there to see it.

"We'll burn these." Viney gestures to the piles of posters they've collected.

Luz nods before pulling away and runs down the steps without another word with the twins on her heels. She zips around the side of the school to her portal glyph and holds her hands to it, thinking intently of the front yard of Blight manner and it blazes to life.

When they step through, they're standing on the front steps of Blight Manor and the twins let her in. 

The house is quiet and empty, with their parents at work and Amity upstairs in her room in bed.

They walk up the stairs to her room and stop outside the closed door. Luz swallows thickly. She feels heavy, every step feels harder than the last.

She lets out a shuddering sigh and reaches up to knock, but stops. 

This feels like a death sentence… she wants so badly to just turn and run, hoping that if she never tells her that Amity won't know, but she knows that the whole school probably knows by now, that Boscha has made sure of it and her parents will know soon after. She can’t let her be blindsided by it, nor let her find out from someone tagging her on their penstagram. No, Luz has to be the one to tell her, and maybe, just maybe, she can mitigate some of the damage. 

The twins stand behind her saying nothing. They’re in no rush to go in there and break this news to their sister. They dread it as much as Luz. So, if she needs a minute or two they're not going to say anything. They hear a sneeze from behind the door that makes Luz jolt back into the present.

"Just… let me be the one to talk to her, okay?" she asks, voice thick and low, still staring at the unopened door.

"Yeah,"

"Okay," the twins say quietly.

Luz takes a breath and does her best to pull herself together. She has to be strong for Amity, no matter how much she wants to break down herself; one of them has to hold it together right now.

She knocks and there's a pause before a voice answers back.

"Yes?" comes the uncertain call.

"It's us, Mittens…," Emira says. 

"Come in." Luz opens the door and sees Amity sitting in her bed with a box of tissues.

She sees the three of them and looks surprised.

"Luz! What are you doing here?" She moves to get up but Luz holds up a hand, halting her as she walks into the room. The twins stay outside the door, in the hall. They want to give them their privacy but want to be nearby if they need them.

"I… something happened at school this morning…," she says quietly and then Amity really looks at her, she looks worried and her eyes are red like she's been crying.

"What happened, are you okay?!" She sits up straighter.

"I… no… not really…," she admits, walking over and sitting gently on the bed next to her, clutching the poster in one of her hands, the way she’s looking at her, so solemn and serious is very unlike her and it makes a pit of worry yawn open in Amity’s gut.

"You're scaring me…" Amity frowns, for Luz to skip school and come here of all places is very worrying. She glances between her sullen girlfriend and the twins lingering in the doorway, both frowning and looking somber too. "What is it?" she asks quietly, reaching out to lay a hand over one of Luz’s. She turns her hand over and laces their fingers together.

Luz sighs silently and straightens up, looking at her, brown locking onto worried gold. She has to rip off the bandaid, nothing she could say will soften this.

"Boscha saw us yesterday, in the courtyard after school…," she finally says, and Amity's eyes blow wide, she knows exactly what Luz means and panic immediately starts to boil inside her.

"What?" Her voice is barely above a whisper and Luz bites her lip, but nods.

"W-who did she tell?!" She finally finds her voice and Luz winces and licks her dry lips, looking at the paper in her hand.

"....everyone." She holds the paper out to Amity, who takes it in trembling hands. Gold eyes grow wider as she reads it and stares at the large, full-color photo of the two of them, kissing by the stairs in front of the school. "These were posted all over the school this morning…"

They all wait on bated breath as Amity stares at it, they're not really sure what kind of reaction they're waiting for, but the waiting is killing Luz, her body tense and on edge.

Amity feels numb, her mind is racing, still trying to process this. Boscha knows, she told the whole school…

Her parents were going to know…

They would force them apart just like with Willow… she was going to lose Luz. 

That thought hits her like a swift kick in the gut.

Amity's breathing is shallow and her hands are shaking as it comes out in quicker and quicker breaths, and her vision starts to blur, Luz can feel her quaking and watches the tears quickly welling up in her eyes.

Suddenly she can't breathe fast enough to actually take in air and cry at the same time. She clutches the paper tightly and her grip on Luz is vice-like, while her heart beats a hundred miles a minute. All she can hear is the blood pounding in her ears as the paper crunches in her fist and her breath sticks to her throat.

"Amity? Amity!" Luz calls, but she doesn't seem to hear over her shuddering cries and choking breaths.

"Shit…," Edric hisses and moves to go into the room, but Emira pulls him back by the arm. 

"Don’t… not yet…," his sister whispers, and Edric grits his teeth but waits.

Luz pulls her hand free and scrambles into the bed behind Amity and wraps her arms loosely around her shaking form as she struggles for breath.

"Hey, hey, It's okay," she says quietly as Amity chokes on a sob. Between crying and her already clogged sinuses from her cold, there's just not enough air. Luz figures out quickly what’s going on, she’d been tested for ADD and anxiety before, and she’s long known that her girlfriend definitely has the later and is now hyperventilating. 

“Can you hear me?” she asks, and Amity nods shakingly and her tears only seem to intensify. Could she breathe, Luz is sure she’d be wailing. 

Somewhere in the back of her mind Luz remembers a medical lecture she’d been forced to attend with her mom once as a kid, and one thing they had talked about was hyperventilating, she hadn’t even really been paying attention, but for some reason, she remembers the parts about how to help it.

Luz grabs her hands and forces them up to cup over her mouth, Amity’s whole body is a coiled muscle, tense, as she tries to breathe and cry all at once and accomplishing neither except short, gasping sobs. The twins are twitching with anxiety in the doorway, they want to run in and do something, but they don’t even know what.

“Breathe, Amity, slowly, please,” she says quietly against her neck. Amity manages to suck in half a breath before another cry cuts it short. “Again, slowly.” Luz prods her gently. The warm breath against her neck and the arms wrapped around her help ground her and she tries to take another breath, even though all she wants to do is sob. 

It takes twenty long minutes before Amity can regulate her breathing again, the sobs and gasping quiet, but tears continue to fall as she lays, exhausted against Luz, clutching her hands tightly in hers and sniffling. Once it looks like Luz has everything handled the twins quietly wander away.

“Call if you need anything…,” Edric tells them quietly before they head elsewhere in the house, shutting the door behind them.

“It’s going to be okay, mi amor.” Luz squeezes the smaller hand in her tightly, face buried in her neck, and Amity hiccups.

“How?” she chokes, voice scratchy. “Everyone knows…my parents are going to find out...” she clenches her eyes shut and more tears stream down her cheeks. Luz just holds her tightly, nuzzling her face against her and Amity leans into the touch, trying to get as close as possible. 

“We’ll figure it out… we always do…,” she says quietly.

They don’t speak much, just stay like they are, wrapped up in each other for hours, Luz occasionally handing her tissues, for her tears and her snotty nose; what a miserable day to have a cold. What a miserable day in general. 

Emira pops her head in around lunchtime to ask if they’re hungry and they both shake their heads and she just nods and leaves them.

Luz doesn’t leave until Amity mumbles that her parents will be home soon and she really needs to go, even as she clings to her tightly. She’s right, the last thing they need is for her parents to catch her here. 

She slowly extracts herself from Amity, who finally, reluctantly, lets her go. Her limbs are stiff from laying in one place for so long. Luz lingers at the bedside for a minute and Amity wants so badly to kiss her, because who knows what tomorrow will bring and when she may ever have the chance again, but she has a cold.

Luz seems to know what she wants by the way she’s clenching and unclenching her hands into the blankets and looking up at her from beneath her lashes. She kneels halfway on the bed and leans in close, but Amity turns her head, albeit, reluctantly.

“I have a cold,” she reminds, frowning. Normally, Luz would agree with her, but today, she could not care less, if she catches it then so be it; she is not leaving until she kisses her girlfriend. 

“I don’t care,” is the resolute reply.

Amity needs no further prompting than that to wrap her hands around the back of Luz’s head, fingers digging into her hair, and kiss her, this one is unlike the many that have come before. This one feels desperate in its intensity, because it is, and has a distinct saltiness to it that only tears can bring. Luz wraps her fingers around the back of Amity’s neck, holding her close and tight, neither wants to let go, but eventually, they have to. They don’t go far, foreheads pressed together gently and Luz can see tears again starting to well up in those golden irises she adores.

“We’ll figure it, I promise,” she says, pressing another, quicker kiss, against her lips. Amity looks unsure, so Luz goes on. “Even if I have to sneak in through that window every night,” she says, and for the first time that day, a smile cracks across Amity’s face.

“You would…,” she mumbles and Luz grinned.

“You know I would,” she agrees. “I’ll see you tomorrow?” If nothing else, Amity will still be at school. She nods, and Luz finally stands and goes to the door, she tells herself not to, but she can’t help but look back at Amity over her shoulder, and the absolutely heartbroken look that’s directed at her causes a stab of pain in her chest that is so visceral she barely stays standing, but she manages and pulls what little of herself is left together, for Amity, and smiles, waving, before she walks out, closing the door behind her.

The twins are in the living room when she walks down the stairs.

“Thanks for everything, guys. I’ll see you later,” she says and waves as she walks to the door.

“Luz” Edric’s voice stops her and both twins walk over. “If you need anything, let us know, okay?” he asks. Luz nods.

“Yeah, actually, if you could… keep an eye on her for me?” Luz asks.

“Of course.” Emira nods

“We always do.” Edric nods and they both smile sadly at her as she leaves. “What a mess…,” he grumbles bitterly once she’s gone, shoulders slumping. 

Emira nods, crossing her arms, and glares at nothing, fingers digging into her arms.

“If that three-eyed bitch thinks we’re just going to let her walk away from this, she has another thing coming,” she sneers, lips pulling back over her fangs as she turns to him and Ed’s face darkens, mirroring the look.

“Oh, you got that right…,” he grits out. 

~

The walk home is long and cold as Luz meanders along at a snail's pace. She feels heavy and exhausted, feet dragging as she heads home.

She almost lost it a few times today, but managed to pull herself together at the last second. Amity needed her to be strong, and by the grace of whatever power was out there, she managed, but now the events of the morning are catching up to her, coupled with the aftermath of her girlfriend's breakdown and that look; the one she'd seen over her shoulder.

She runs her tongue over her lip and swears she can still taste the salty sorrow of Amity’s kiss. She tries not to think of it as such, but it had felt so final, like a goodbye kiss. 

Her eyes burn with unshed tears and her chest is tight, but not here, not in the middle of the dirt road that leads home.

She holds her cracked pieces together though, letting the cold mid-autumn air bite at her face, she barely feels it anyway. 

Eventually, the owl house comes into view.

"Luz, you're home!" Hooty greets her brightly and it's grating in her ears.

"Hi Hooty…," she mumbles, pushing open the door. She closes it quietly behind her and stands there in the entryway. The house is warm and brightly lit. She can hear someone rummaging around in the kitchen.

"Hey, Luz!" King calls from the couch, sitting next to Lilith who smiles at her. "You're late!" He points an accusatory paw at her. "Where have you been, smooching your girlfriend?" He makes a disgusted face. Lilith seems to notice the tight look on her face and frowns.

"Are you all right, Luz?" she asks.

The pieces fall apart at last.

Her lip trembled and her vision swims with quickly pooling tears as her breath hitches in her chest. She chokes on it as they start to drip down her cheeks. 

Her legs are weak and she drops to her knees inhaling a shaky breath that exhales as a loud, wailing cry. The damn breaks, and then she can't stop the loud, ugly sobs that wrack her body.

King stares wide-eyed and Lilith shoots to her feet, she doesn't even need to call out. There's a loud crash of shattering glass being dropped on the floor and then Eda is dashing out of the kitchen.

"Luz!" She hurries over, dropping to her knees in front of the sobbing girl. "What happened?!" Eda asks, panicked.

Luz can't even begin to form words, she only weeps harder, her whole body shuddering with every one of the heaving sobs that rips out of her throat. King and Lilith hurry over to kneel on the floor.

Eda finally just wraps her arms around her and sits on the floor, tugging the girl in close, arms curled tightly around her, and Luz buries her face in her chest and cries. 

She cries for a long time.


	2. Chapter 2

Luz sleeps only because she cried herself to complete exhaustion the night before.

She wakes up slowly. Her whole body is tired. She manages to push herself up, blinking away the remnants of sleep, and looks around. She's still wearing her school clothes. Eda probably carried her up here after she passed out. She'd cried in Eda's arm till she fell asleep, never making it out of the living room.

She looks at the window, the sun hasn't risen yet, casting her room in a cool gray-blue of predawn. She needs to get ready for school, but she knows that she has to talk to Eda first. Everyone is probably wondering just what all that was last night. 

She climbs out of bed sluggishly and straightens out her uniform, and brushes her hair into some form of compliance before leaving her room and walking quietly down the stairs.

The living room is empty, but there are sounds coming from the kitchen, the clatter of plates, and silverware, and she can smell something delicious being cooked. Pancakes?

She walks in to find Lilith and King sitting at the table, the former sipping on her customary cup of breakfast tea, and the latter, gnawing hungrily on a fork.

King notices her first.

"Luz!" He drops the fork and jumps down from his chair, and scampers up to her, wrapping his arms around one of her legs and looking up at her worried. “Are you okay?”

Luz looks down at him and picks him up, kissing his furry cheek.

"I… don't really know how to answer that…," she says and King lets out a whine, nuzzling closer to her, which makes her smile a little. 

"How ya feeling, kid?" She looks up at Eda as she walks over, and she shrugs.

"I… don't know," she admits. 

"You wanna tell us what happened now?" she asks softly.

Luz sighs, but nods and Eda leads her to her customary spot at the table and they sit. Luz tells them about the events of yesterday. A variety of emotions filter across both Clawthorne sister’s faces as she recounts the day before Eda’s finally settles on rage. 

"That rotten little bit-" 

"Edalyn!" Lilith scolds before turning back to Luz. "I'm sorry you both had to go through that, Luz." Lilith frowned.

"So now you're just… waiting?" Eda asks and Luz nods. The older witch sighs. "I'm sorry, Luz." Eda laid a hand on her shoulder and squeezed.

"Thanks…," she mumbles.

"Chin up, kiddo. We'll deal with it as it comes. For now, how bout pancakes?" She smiles and Luz realizes that she's absolutely starving. She hasn't eaten since breakfast this time yesterday.

"Please," she moans. Eda grins and stands to grab Luz a tall stack of pancakes.

She wolfs it down in record time to fill her empty belly that’s eating itself and when all that remains on her plate is a puddle of syrup, she sighs contently, satisfied.

"Thanks, mom," she says as she stands to leave.

"Have a good day, Luz," Lilith says as she grabs her bag and makes for the door.

"Thanks, and you're right." She turns to Eda, who cocks a brow at her. "Boscha is a bitch," she says and runs for the door. "I love you guys, bye!" She bolts out the front door and heads for school leaving Eda cackling behind her. Lilith rolls her eyes at them. In another universe, Luz was definitely Eda's. 

When her laughter fades away Eda's face grows more somber and she sits in Luz's empty seat across from Lilith, looking at her seriously. Lilith looks back at her, waiting, as she takes a sip from her cup.

"Theoretically…," she starts, tapping her long nails on the table. "We could just... kill this girl and dump her body in a river, right?" she asks nonchalantly.

Lilith looks at her over the rim of her cup for a long minute before she takes another long sip.

"Theoretically…" she agrees and sets her cup on the back on the table with a quiet clink. “But it would be easily discoverable in the river… burning on the other hand…” 

~

Luz isn't surprised when she arrives at school and more people than usual look her way when she passes them.

She doesn't care about them though. Her only worry is about Amity and her parents. In the human world, she was used to people whispering behind her back or looking at her strangely. It's gotten easy for her to ignore. 

Her friends and Amity are waiting out front, near the stairs.

Luz runs up to them.

"Hey, guys," she greets and it's noticeably more subdued than most mornings.

"Hey, Luz." They smile at her and if it's a little sad, she doesn't say anything. They too have noticed the looks their group is getting from other students. Amity is the only one who seems a little shaken up by it, shoulders tensing every time other students walk by into the building past them and their gaze lingers before they start whispering to themselves. It stabs at Luz’s chest, as well as the exhausted look on her girlfriend’s face. 

She grabs Amity's hand and squeezes.

Amity blinks at her, surprised, but then she squeezes back. Everyone already knows, they have no reason to hide it anymore.

"Anything happen last night?" she asks quietly and Amity shakes her head, leaning her shoulder against hers.

"I don't think they've heard yet…" she frowns. Luz hums.

“There’s no point in worrying about it till something actually happens.” Willow reasons. It hurts her to see the two so solemn. 

“Yeah, try not to worry about it for now,” Gus agrees.

“They're right.” Luz looks at Amity and she nods tiredly.

“Right…,” she mumbles, leaning her head on her shoulder, but their friends' words don’t bring her any comfort and Luz knows it, they don’t help her much either, but she appreciates the effort. She presses a kiss to green hair.

“Try not to worry, mi amor,” she says and Amity nods. 

The bell screams soon enough and they have to all make their way to class.

They meet up again at lunch and it feels like everyone’s eyes are on her as Amity walks into the cafeteria with her lunch. She sees the table in the back where Luz and their friends are sitting and quickly makes her way over, she doesn’t look at anyone and tries to block out all the quiet whispering that she knows, without even having to hear, is about her.

She quickly sits down next to Luz. They try to just have a normal lunch, but Amity feels like she’s crawling in her skin with all the attention centered on her. She glances at Luz, who doesn’t seem at all bothered by it. She wishes she could do that, but between the gossiping and the looks so far today in class and just passing in the halls, not to mention the threat of when, not if her parents are going to find out, looming over her head, she just feels like tightly wound spring, looking to release all the tight energy spiraled up inside her. 

Luz looks up at Amity to see her staring intently down at her uneaten food with a pensive face and frowns. 

"When was the last time you ate?" Luz whispers, jolting her out of her thoughts as she turns to look at her. It takes her long enough to answer that Luz knows that the answer is probably sometime yesterday. 

"I'm not hungry," she finally mumbles, still picking at her food. 

"I know… but please, eat something. For me?" Luz tries. Amity looks at her and the meaning is clear. 

_'that's not fair'_

Luz smiles at that and Amity sighs and finally takes a bite.

It tastes like sawdust in her mouth but she eats it all anyway, for Luz, and maybe she does feel a little better with her belly full, but she's not going to say so. Luz looks happy about it though, and that's good enough for her.

What does lift her spirits are when a surprised shriek fills the cafeteria, and from where they're sitting they can see Boscha, jump up from her table, covered in her own lunch. 

As she does, more food flies from several more directions, pelting her in the back and the face.

The whole cafeteria erupts into laughter as she wipes the green goo out of her eyes, especially as yet more food flies through the air to hit her from several directions and she runs out with her group of cronies behind her and screaming with rage.

Gus snickers to himself and they look at him.

"What was that about?" Willow blinks, and he grins.

"The illusion track," is the answer.

"Whaddaya mean?" Luz asks.

"Ed and Em rallied the illusion track students this morning to play pranks on Boscha. They've actually become really popular since they stopped all the mean jokes, not that it was hard to convince anyone, no one really likes Boscha," he explains. "Oh, you guys missed it this morning, but someone magiced her locker to explode trash slug slime on her when she opened it!" he laughs.

Luz and Willow grin at that and Amity smiled.

Her brother and sister are too much sometimes, and she loves them.

With the distraction of Boscha's drive-thru lunch, no one seems to be looking at them anymore and Luz throws her arm over Amity's shoulders, tugging her close. The human grins at her and Amity feels herself relax some.

Maybe the threat of her parents is still looming over her, but for now, here with her friends, knowing her siblings have her back and saddled up close to the girl she loves, she's happy.

The rest of the day goes by quickly. Thursday and Friday are easier, after Wednesday the luster of their secret has already worn off and people are more distracted by the constant pranks being played on Boscha by the illusion track. Her locker has been filled with all sorts of gross and disturbing things between every passing period and something always goes awry at lunch. 

Ed and Em deny ever doing a single thing to the girl when Luz asks them, but the devious looks on their face tell another story altogether.

It seems being one of the top students in the beast keeping track gives Viney some pull too if the griffin excrement in Boscha's locker or the baby chupacabra she finds in her bag during potions Friday morning are anything to go by.

Not to mention that Luz is well-liked by most of her classmates in all her tracks, and it doesn't take long for word to spread to the other tracks about what's going on and they soon join and collaborate with each other. There are a few people at Hexside Boscha hasn't bullied or demeaned, so no one blinks an eye at the potions slipped into her lunch that have… less than favorable effects or the sound effects the bard track adds whenever something bad happens to her. The members of the healing track are always curiously absent as well from the medical wing whenever Boscha has to go see them, for chupacabra bites or the like.

After school Friday they tell Eda and Lilith about the potion someone must have slipped her that made her break out in a full-body rash. Eda, as the chaotic witch she is, is delighted by it and even Lilith grins, though she tries to hide it behind her teacup.

They go upstairs and Luz jumps on her bed with a tired sigh, Amity makes an agreeing noise as she plops down next to her, letting Luz curl up around her tiredly. She smiles to herself and runs her fingers through her girlfriend's soft, dark locks, they hang down the back of her neck now and her bangs droop around her eyebrows. Amity thinks it's a cute look, and while she of course isn't forbidding Luz from cutting her hair if she wants, when asked her opinion, she simply says she likes it how it is, which is enough to keep Luz from cutting it. She needs to cut her own soon, her roots are showing again, much to Luz's delight.

Luz hums contently in her grip and they just lay there.

"Hey," Luz starts after a while.

"Hmm?" Amity's eyes are closed, face buried in the warm girl's neck.

"I've been thinking… about switching to all potions track…," she finally says.

Amity's eyes snap open at that and she leans back to look at Luz. The surprise is clear in her wide eyes.

"What, really?" Is all she can ask and Luz nods.

"My potions teacher thinks I could go really far if I took potions more than once a week," she says.

"I'm sure you could, you're already the top student after all… but you love taking all the tracks." She frowns, brows furrowing between her eyes.

"Yeah, I do, but focusing on the thing I'm really good at seems like the more… responsible thing to do…," she says and now Amity knows something is up, and she has a pretty good idea of what it might be.

"Luz, does this have anything to do with my parents?" she asks and Luz frowns, eyes glancing away and Amity knows for certain now.

"I mean… they don't really like the multitrack thing right? Besides, I'm good at potions, maybe they wouldn't mind us being together if I was just the top student in the potions track only," she reasons, looking back at her again and Amity frowns. "I just don't want to lose you…," she mumbles under her breath. There's a pain In her heart at those words, that strikes Amity like a hot coal, it burns hot in her chest 

"Luz… no," she starts, pulling her hands away from the back of Luz's neck to cup her face, thumbs running across her warm cheeks. "I don't want to lose you either, but I also want you just as you are, I don't want you to change to try and please my parents, I do enough of that for the both of us already…" she says quietly. "If you want to take all potions, then do it because that's what you want to do, not for me, and especially not because of my parents. I love you just the way you are, querida." She presses her forehead against Luz's, who smiles, reaching up to hold the hands pressed to her face.

"I love you too," she says, leaning in to close the small distance between them with a firm kiss.

"You two are gross…" they both jump at the voice and turn to see King standing in the doorway, with his arms crossed.

"Probably," Luz grins, tightening her grip on Amity. "Did you want to come snuggle with us, King?" She asks in that baby tone.

"No!" he squeals.

"Good, more for me." Amity huffs, wrapping her arms back around Luz's neck, but is smirking to herself, face hidden in her girlfriend's neck. Luz grins, knowing what she's doing, and cuddles closer.

King lasts all of thirty seconds before he screeches and runs over, scrambling up the side of the bed to wedge his way between them.

"King demands cuddles!" He shouts as they laugh and squeeze him between them. Once he's settled down, they share a look over the top of his head, smiling at each other.

~

When Amity gets home she heads straight for her room and sets her bag down.

She's just sitting down at her desk when her siblings burst in unannounced, as they usually do.

"Hey, Mittens." Edric grins at her, as they make themselves comfortable on her bed.

"Soooo, how"s school been?" Emira drawls with a sly, knowing grin that completely betrays her.

Amity smirks at them.

"Rather uneventful on my part actually, though Boscha seems to be having an unusually hard time, but I'm sure you two don't know anything about that, do you?" she asks.

The twins glanced at each other, both wearing equally shit-eating grins.

"I can't say that we do," Edric says, kicking his feet as he lays on his stomach across her bed, head in his hands. 

"Doesn't ring any bells." Emira flips her hair over her shoulder and leans back on her hands.

Amity just shakes her head at them, she's grinning.

A knock on the door makes them all freeze, smiles falling away.

"Yes?" Amity calls, trying to keep the sudden nervousness out of her voice.

The door opens and her mother appears.

Odalia Blight looks as prim and proper as ever. Her dark chartreuse hair pulled into a perfect bun atop her head and her lavender dress perfectly pressed and tidy. Her face is stiff and serious, though it's hardly anything other. Her sharp, olive eyes land on Amity.

"Amity, dear, your father and I would like to speak to you in his study," she says. 

Those words send ice coursing through Amity's veins. This has to be it, the moment she has been dreading for two days.

"Yes, mother." The response is automatic, she doesn't even realize she's saying it. Her mother nods and disappears down the hall toward her father's study.

Amity takes a shaky breath as she stands.

The twins scramble off the bed to lay a hand on each of her shoulders.

"It's gonna be okay," Emira says and Edric nods.

"Relax, take a breath." 

She nods and takes a slow steadying breath. The twins pat her and she walks out of her room and down the stairs toward her father's study. The large wooden door is indistinguishable from the rest of the house, unassuming, but it is one the Blight children never enter unless they've been summoned.

She knocks and a deep voice calls for her to enter.

She takes the handle with a shaking hand and pushes it open.

The room is large and spacious, lined with bookshelves fit to bursting with thick, leather-bound tomes. A large, violet rug lays over the dark wood floor and one large window fills the opposite wall from the door, in front of which an old, sturdy desk sits. 

Behind that desk, sits her father, looking down at something in front of him. Her mother stands next to him, hands folded in front of her.

Alador Blight is a tall, thin man, with auburn hair that extends in a well-groomed beard that follows his jawline and grows long on his chin. He is never seen in less than long, black dress pants and dark gray, and white pinstriped dress shirt under a black vest, a gold chain hanging from one of the buttons to the pocket where his pocket watch rests against his chest.

He looks up and gold eyes the same shade as her own land on her.

"Come here a moment, Amity, we'd like to discuss something with you," he calls.

"Yes?" she asks quietly, folding her hands in front of her tightly as she stops in front of the desk.

"We were hoping you could explain this," her mother says, picking a piece of paper off her father's desk and holding it up to her. 

She can't help but wince as the poster of her and Luz is held up in front of her face.

She swallows thickly.

"It's… a poster, Boscha posted at school," she says simply. Her mother makes a sour face at that.

"Clearly it is a poster." There's a sharpness in her voice that cuts at Amity. "What we are referring to, is what you are doing in this… scandalous photo," she says. Her father watches silently.

Amity doesn't see any way to mitigate this other than the truth, after all, it's right there, in full color. She mumbles something and winces when her mother sighs sharply.

"Blight's do not mumble, Amity. Speak clearly," she scolds.

"Kissing my girlfriend." She says louder, cheeks turning pink as she says it out loud to her parents.

"Girlfriend?" Her mother looks appalled. "The human?" She's aghast. "How long has this been going on?" she demands.

"Almost six months…"

"Six months?!" Her mother's olive eyes are wide and her father's brows tick upward at that.

"You've been gallivanting around with that human for six months?" Odalia is beside herself at that news, and Amity's shoulders hug her neck. Her mother presses a hand to her temple and shakes her head, but every time the word 'human' slips past her mother's lips makes Amity's stomach roil with anger. Like that's all Luz is and that's all they need to know about her, that she's human, not that she's the kindest, most thoughtful, loving person Amity has ever known 

"The human…," her mother starts again.

"Luz" Amity finally speaks, cutting off her mother who looks at her, startled. Her father is also looking at her surprised now. Amity swallows, but plows on.

"Her name is Luz. Luz Noceda."

Her mother only frowns at that.

"Of all the witchlings on the Boiling Isles, you choose that girl of all people…, why?" her mother makes a face and throws up a hand, begging to understand why their most level-headed child has done this.

"I…" she glances between her parents. She has nowhere else to go with this. "I love her," is her simple, honest answer.

Her mother scoffs, rolling her eyes as she sets the offensive paper on her father's desk.

"You couldn't possibly know what love is," Odalia says imperiously. Amity clenches her fists.

She might be young, but she's not five. she's read enough books and seen enough people in love to know what it's supposed to look and sound like.

She's learned over the last six months exactly what it feels like to. 

It's an all-encompassing desire to be with someone, wanting nothing but to make them happy, and being happy just because they are. Taking care of each other, knowing they're there for you no matter what, even when no one else is.

Luz has literally shed blood for her and kept on fighting, and if all that isn't love, then Amity is sure no such thing exists in this world.

She's been head over heels in love with Luz for long enough to know this, and maybe she's never bled for her, but she can at least make this stand for her.

"Yes I do, and I love her!" Her voice raises as she slaps a hand to her chest, leaning forward, gold eyes narrowed and mouth pulled back in a snarl, and her mother looks at her like she's lost her mind.

Auburn brows shoot upward into his hairline as Alador regards his youngest daughter from across his desk. He can't remember the last time Amity argued with them, and he doesn't think she's ever raised her voice at them, much less the look directed at her mother now, whole body rigid. He's intrigued by this, by this human girl that elicits such a strong reaction in his youngest, and usually, most well behaved child.

He speaks before his wife gets the chance to open her mouth, and he can tell she's about to harshly scold Amity but cuts her off at the pass.

"Tell me, Amity," he finally speaks since this conversation started, steepling his fingers in front of him."...Tell me about this, Luz Noceda," he says, leaning back in his chair. Odalia's head whips to look at him, but his gold eyes are trained on Amity, who is looking back at him with the same eyes.

That catches her off guard, and she blinks back in surprise. She never expected that from her dad, who is looking at her curiously, waiting.

Normally, on any other day of the week she could confidently sing her girlfriend's praises to anyone, but at the moment, put on the spot in front of both of her parents, she struggles to speak for a minute.

"She's kind…," she finally starts. "She's always kind to everyone, but especially to me…," she says, unsure. Tons of things come to mind, but she knows well enough that some of them are things that most people would not find as endearing as she does, especially not her parents.

Her father doesn't say anything, only continues to look at her expectantly, she does her best to ignore her mother, looking at her with narrowed eyes. She knows the kinds of things her mother wants to hear.

"She's very intelligent, and studies all nine tracks at school..."

"Yes, we saw her… interesting uniform, in the photo," her mother says distastefully. Whether that distaste is aimed at Luz's education choices or the content of the photo, Amity is unsure, and her cheeks pink a little, the fact that her parents saw that photo… but she doesn't have time for that right now, she can sense that this is her make or break moment by the simple virtue that they're having this conversation at all.

"She's one of the top students in beast keeping, and is the top student in potions," she says, standing straighter, shoulders pushed back proudly at Luz's achievements. Her mother blinks surprised at that. Being the top student in any of the tracks is nothing to sneeze at. "Humans don't have bile sacs, so she can't do magic the same way we do, but she works hard to work around that, harder than anyone, we spend a lot of time studying for abominations," she tells them.

"Interesting, how does she perform magic?" Her father tilts his head.

All three Blight children know exactly how best to appeal to their parents. Anything that makes them look good is the quickest way to get their mother to agree to something.

Her father, however, has a natural, insatiable curiosity, anything that grabs his interest is the best way to garner his attention. Amity inherited her curious and studious nature from the man, after all.

"With glyphs, usually on paper, but anything she can draw on. She's taught me some." 

"Show me," he commands, sliding his desk notepad and pen across to her.

Amity steps forward and takes the pen, she hesitates a moment before deciding on which glyph she wants to use, and carefully drawing it out on the paper and tapping it gently. The paper crumpled up, forming a floating orb of light, it's gentle glow casts shadows across both father and daughter's faces.

"Fascinating…" Alador pulls at his beard thoughtfully as he observes the light spell floating above his desk. He's done his share of research about ancient magics and this reminds him of what he's read, to see it, is another matter entirely, even if it is only a simple light spell.

"Wild magic…" his wife frowns.

"She's the Owl Lady's apprentice," Amity says, and her mother's olive gaze turns to her.

"Edalyn Clawthorne…," her mother sneers. "A brazen criminal…" 

"A former criminal," Alador says, drawing both their attention. "The Emperor himself pardoned her and her sister by the will of the Titan," he reminds. "It is thus, not our place to question that… even if her character remains… questionable," he says. "There is no denying that the Clawthorne sisters' are both formidably powerful."

Odalia frowns but doesn't argue either point.

He hums and glances at the poster still sitting on his desk, and the photo of his daughter wrapped in a rather passionate embrace with the human he had heard rumors off. He doesn't like this obvious power play by his colleague's daughter, trying to discredit Amity, but that is a concern for later.

"I'm intrigued, Amity," he finally addresses his daughter, and stands from his desk, cupping the light spell in his hand as he walks around to stand in front of her.

He towers over her, but he towers over everyone in the family, Edric aspires to be as tall as their father someday.

"Clearly this, Luz, is of importance to you, so I wish to meet her," he says and Amity balks.

"You do?" Is all she can say. Her mother looks just as shocked.

"Yes, I've heard the rumors of the human attending Hexside, and her magic is interesting. I'd like to separate the facts from the myths myself," he says and hums thoughtfully. "I believe we have no prior engagements Sunday? "he turns to his wife questioningly, who nods. "Invite your girlfriend to dinner Sunday night, Amity. I will gauge her character for myself," he says with finality.

Amity's tongue works soundlessly in her throat before she nods.

"Yes, father," she finally managed to say. 

"Good, that will be all, Amity." He dismisses and she nods before quickly leaving the room.

When she's far enough away from her father's study, she books it back to her room.

Edric and Emira are standing inside, waiting for her.

"Mittens!" They practically jump on her.

"What did they say?!"

"Dad… wants to meet Luz," she says, still shocked by this.

"Really?" Emira blinks.

"Yeah… he wants me to invite her to dinner Sunday night." She looks between them.

"Well, that will be an interesting dinner…" Edric cocks a brow and Emira elbows him.

"I have to tell Luz!" Amity runs over to her desk and pulls open a drawer, sitting next to the little maroon box that her brooch rests in is a large, folded up piece of paper.  
She pulls it out and unfolds it on the floor. it's poster size, and has a large, intricate glyph drawn on it.

She taps her hand to it and a portal blazed to life.

"Fold this up and put it back in my drawer, I'll be back soon." With that she hops into the portal and is gone, leaving the twins alone.

"Okay, we have got to get her to draw one of those for us," Emira says. Edric nods.

Amity appears, dropping onto the floor of Luz's bedroom.

Luz screams, falling out of her desk chair, where she'd been bent over some homework.

"Amity?! Don't do that!" She gasps, pressing a hand over her chest where her heart is beating rapidly against her ribs. "I coulda been changing or something…"

"Sorry!" Amity says, helping her stand. Carefully choosing not to mention that her changing is a moot point after her drugged dunking in the river and she had to help her change clothes. "I had to come to tell you right away." Luz's face turns concerned at that.

"What, what happened?" she asks quickly, grabbing hold of Amity's hands.

Before she can say anything the bedroom door slams open and Eda, Lilith, and King burst in, staves at the ready. 

They take one look around the room and see the two teenagers standing there holding hands. Eda scowls, lowering her staff.

"What part of 'door open' do you two not get?" Eda frowns as she stands in the doorway.

"I'm sorry, Eda, I just got here, my parents found out today," she says and Eda's annoyed look quickly melts into surprise as she steps into the room, the other two following.

"What happened, kid?" 

"They want Luz to come to dinner Sunday. My dad wants to meet you," she says, turning back to Luz.

"Well, that's a good thing right?" she asks, looking confused. Amity looks very worried about a dinner invitation.

"I… don't know," she admits. "My mom certainly didn't seem happy about it…," she says. 

"Okay, but this is our chance, they didn't outright forbid you from seeing me. We can do this!" Luz smiles and Amity can't help but return it. Luz always has that effect on her. 

"You at a fancy-schmancy Blight dinner? I'm not sure you have the right breeding for that kid." Eda plants a hand on her hip.

"Hey, you don't know what kind of breeding I have!" Luz huffs.

"Eda's right… your usual table manners are fine… most of the time…" Amity gives her a sideways look, and Luz knows she's referring to the eating contest she and Gus had, where she shoved her whole face into her lunch tray a couple of weeks ago. "...but dinner at my house is a little more formal," Amity continues. 

"Couldn't you teach me?" Luz asks.

"I don't have time tomorrow and I snuck out just now to tell you…" Amity bites her lip.

"I think I could be of assistance." Lilith steps forward.

"Hey, yeah, Lily is the queen of all that prissy, pompous stuff." Eda slaps her sister's back, making her jerk and she rolls her eyes.

"I often had to attend dinners and ceremonies during my time in the coven. I am quite up to date on the necessary etiquette that the Blights would employ at formal a dinner." She agrees.

"Yeah, Lilith's a great teacher!" Luz says.

"So?" Lilith looks between the two teens. Luz turns back to Amity who nods.

"Perfect, we're about to have dinner, Luz, I can assess what you know and what areas we need to work on." 

"You stayin' for dinner, Kid?" Eda asks Amity, who frowns.

"No, thank you. I need to get back before my parents realize I'm gone," she says. Eda nods and the sisters make their way back downstairs with King.

Luz squeezes Amity's hands and tugs her in for a quick kiss.

"Don't worry, mi amor, I will learn everything!" Luz promises with a determined nod that makes her smile.

"I know you will." She says before she steps away to the permanent portal glyph drawn on Luz's bedroom wall and taps it before disappearing inside.


	3. Chapter 3

Saturday morning Luz runs out of the house towards town. She's meeting Willow and Gus to hang out for the day and shop for some clothes. She’d tried on her clothes from the masquerade and realized with horror that her growth spurt over the last six months had grown her out of them, leaving the pants hanging a good almost two inches up her ankle, the same for her shirt, which now sat an inch above her wrist bone. There was no way she could go to dinner at Blight Manor like this; at least the vest and shoes still fit. 

She needs to talk to her friends about tomorrow night’s dinner, maybe they can offer her some kind of pointers and help her shop. 

The market is busy as it always is on Saturday, filled with the varied denizens of the Isles doing their shopping. Gus and Willow are waiting for her at the fountain at the center of the market. They see her coming and wave.

"Hey, guys!" She grins brightly at them and the two smile back, they can already tell that she is in a much better mood than the last few days.

"You look chipper, did something happen?" Willow asks.

"Amity's parents found out last night," she says and shocked looks replace her friend’s smiles.

"What?!" Gus yelps.

"And you're… happy?" Willow questions.

"Yeah, they didn't forbid her from seeing me! Her dad wants to meet me, I'm having dinner there tomorrow night," she explains.

"That's great, Luz!" She smiles. 

"Hopefully, Lilith is gonna start giving me etiquette lessons when I get home, also I need to get some new clothes. I’ve grown out of the only nice ones I had, maybe you guys could help me pick out some new pants and a shirt?” she asks. 

“Oh, shopping!” Gus grins. Willow laughs.

“Sure we can.” She nods.

“Great, let’s go!” She grins, taking off with the two witches hot on her heels. 

They spend the morning poking their heads into different shops and suggesting clothes to Luz.

“What colors were you thinking of?” Willow asks as they wander through a fancy dress clothes store. The scaly, winged clerk watches them carefully, they are three teenagers in an upscale store.

“Well, I know Amity really likes dark reddish-pink colors…,” she says, looking at some pants. 

“You’re trying to impress her parents, Luz. Amity couldn’t be any more enamored with you if you tried. If this wasn’t dinner with her parents, you could show up in that otter onesie and she’d still be happy to see you,” Willow chuckled. 

“I still wanna look nice for my girlfriend…,” she pouts with a huff, making Willow roll her eyes. 

“Well, I think you’d look really good in red then…,” Willow hums, sorting through some dress shirts hanging in a display.

“Yeah, like a dark, blood-red,” Gus agrees. “Something fancy and mysterious.” He wiggles his fingers. “Oh, what about a cloak?” he turns to Luz who brightens at the idea. 

"Yeah!"

“Well, it is in fashion to wear a cloak…,” Willow concedes upon seeing their excitement. Normally she’d veto the cloak, but it is the fashion for formal events and gatherings, and if dinner at Blight manor isn’t a formal event, Willow doesn’t know what is. 

Gus and Luz high five. 

Willow makes a pleased sound as she pulls a shirt off the rack and holds it for the two to inspect. 

“How’s this?” She holds up a deep, wine red button-down shirt.

“Ohhh, I like it. Let me try it on.” She takes it and disappears into the dressing room along with a pair of pants.

Gus and Willow wait for her to reappear.

"What do you think?" she asks as she steps out and spins in a little circle for them.

It fits her perfectly in all the right places across her shoulders and chest. The black pants go with the deep color.

"Lookin' fancy." Gus grins.

"Looks great, Luz," Willow agrees.

"Great, just need to get me a cloak and we can get out of here," she says before disappearing back inside the dressing room.

Gus and Willow wander over to the section where those particular garments are kept and begin browsing while they wait for Luz.

When she comes back they browse a little while, they're all manner of cloaks hung up on the racks in the most outlandish colors and styles. Some with feathers or scales sewn in, and even some with built-in shoulder armor that makes her grin. True, she still has the cloak Eda made for her out of witch's wool, but it is a little short on her now, and definitely won't go with her clothes. She's also not expecting any powerful spells to be thrown her way during dinner.

As much as her dramatic heart wants to go big, she knows that this is not the occasion for it. She's going for something a little more... respectable, than what she would normally choose.

Then something catches her eye. It's a plain black cloak, lined in a deep purple, and without a hood, it has a collar instead. What grabs her attention though is the little gold owl clasps attached to the chain that holds it closed. She pulls it off the rack and swings it across her back. It’s silky to the touch and sits comfortably heavy on her shoulders, and hits her in the back of the calves.

"Whaddaya guys think?" she calls to Gus and Willow.

"Oh, that's perfect, Luz," Willow says.

"Sharp," Gus agrees. 

"Great, I think we're all done here then." She takes it off and bundles her items together as they walk up to the counter. The clerk hums, looking less suspicious of them now that they're actually buying something.

He rings it up and Luz balks at the price, but forks over the amount of snails begrudgingly. That was a heavy hit to her personal funds. If her parents allow them to keep dating, Amity is going to have to fund their dates for a while.

They spend the rest of the morning wandering around the market.

"Should I bring a gift? You're supposed to bring a gift for your host right? Or is that just a human tradition?" Luz asks.

"Yeah, but what would you even take?" Gus scratches his chin.

"Flowers are always a good choice," Willow suggests.

"I'll ask Lilith, she'd know…" 

They part ways soon after, Luz scurrying home with her purchases.

She puts the bag in her closet, where Hooty can't get to it and hurries downstairs where Lilith is waiting, standing at the counter.

"Ready to get started?" she asks.

"I was born ready!" Luz grins and Lilith smiles.

"Very well, for this, pretend I'm the host and we're about to sit down to dinner," she says.

Luz walks up to the table and starts pulling out a chair, but stops when Lilith tuts at her.

"The first rule is to wait until the host has sat, or indicated that you may seat yourself."

"Oh… okay." She steps back and Lilith sits at the chair opposite from her and then gestures to it.

There is an array of silverware sitting in front of her, all mismatched since it is Eda's, but it was the best they could do on short notice. They still manage to scramble together a halfway decent example setup. 

"Now… your meat fork?" Lilith asks.

Luz glances at the three forks for a long moment. They aren't labeled in any capacity and she hums before picking one at random and holding it up.

"No, that is your dessert fork," Lilith says before showing her the right fork.

This is going to be harder than Luz anticipated.

They spend the rest of Saturday carefully going over etiquette and which fork and knife are which.

~ 

Luz hums looking thoughtfully at the table for a second before picking up a fork and holding it up. She looks up at Lilith for approval, who nods.

"Yes, very good, Luz, that is your salad fork." 

"Yes!" She grins and sets the cutlery back onto the table among the other forks, knives, and various place settings. 

They've been at this all day and most of last night. It's Sunday afternoon and they're having a last run through. Luz will not stop until she gets it right every time. Her relationship with Amity hinges on making a good first impression, and not making an absolute fool of herself at this dinner.

"Now, when passing foods or condiments, which side do you pass to?"

"Offer to the left and pass everything to the right?" she says, unsure, but Lilith smiles and nods.

"Very good. Used silverware?" She asks, cocking a brow.

"Should never touch the table, keep it on your plate," she answers almost automatically. That had been her biggest problem when they started, constantly setting her fork back on the table. 

"Correct," she says, walking around and tapping Luz under the chin. The girl sits up straight at the slight touch. "Remember, sit up straight, always."

"Right." She nods.

Eda watches the display from the kitchen island where she's mixing potions.

"This seems like an awful lot of work to eat…," she gripes.

"Be that as it may, this is what Luz needs to know if she is to make a good impression at this dinner. She's already going in looking unfavorable as a human, being associated with the two of us, you especially doesn't do her any favors either. The best she can do is be a picture-perfect dinner guest." 

Eda sticks her tongue out but doesn't argue the point. Her reputation probably isn't going to help Luz.

They keep at it for a while until Luz has a perfect mock run of dinner.

"I believe you are as ready as you're ever going to be," Lilith declares by late afternoon and Luz grins and jumps up to hug the older Clawthorne.

"Thank you, Lilith. I gotta iron my clothes now," she says before running upstairs. 

"So, what do you think?" Eda asks once Luz has gone upstairs.

"I think if she stays calm she will be okay." She nods, sitting at the table.

"Unfortunately that's a big 'if'...," she mumbles.

"We must have faith, for her sake." 

A few hours later, she's freshly showered and dressed in her clean, pressed clothes and she's standing in front of the bathroom mirror carefully combing her hair back, it's really the only way she knows how to style it that looks decent at its current awkward length. She knows without her having to say it that Amity likes it like this and doesn't want her to cut it, and it's growing on her too, literally and figuratively.

She runs into her room and slips on her shoes and grabs her cloak, stuffing her glyph book, pad and pen into her pocket. She doesn't anticipate needing it, but once bitten twice shy. She feels better with its heavyweight in her pocket. She throws on her cloak pinning the small owl clasps so it hangs across her shoulders and hurries down the stairs where the sisters are waiting.

"How do I look?" she asks as they walk over to inspect her.

"Very nice, you wouldn’t be out of place at any formal event on the Isles." Lilith smiles, reaching out to straighten the skinny black tie around Luz’s neck, fussily. 

"Pretty fancy, Kid." Eda grins, then notices the gold clasps on her cloak and reaches up to finger one of the detailed birds.

"Gotta represent the owl house and my owl mom." Luz grins.

Eda snorts but there's a distinct glaze welling up in her eyes.

"Pfft, get out of here already…" She gives Luz a gentle shove, trying to push down the emotions welling up in her voice as she shoves her staff into the kid’s hands. Lilith gives her a knowing look.

"Wish me luck, love you!" she calls and runs out the front door. 

"Don't set your fork on the table!" Lilith calls as she flies off and they watch her go from the doorway.

She’s a little ahead of schedule, but she has to make a quick stop in town before she heads to Blight Manor. 

~

Amity is so nervous she might throw up.

She anxiously smooths down any imaginary wrinkles in her burgundy and black material of her ombre, sleeveless dress before pinning her brooch to her chest.

She hasn't heard from Luz at all today, which is worrying, but she hopes Lilith was able to instill the basics of formal dining in her girlfriend over a short two days.

She sits in front of her vanity mirror, smoothing out her loose hair when a pair of green-haired heads pop in her door.

"Hey, Mittens, how are you doing?" Edric asks as they step inside to stand behind her

"Nervous," she admits, looking at them in the mirror.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine. Luz can be pretty suave when she wants to be,” Edric assures. 

“I don’t think her charms are gonna work on mom and dad the same way they do on Amity…,” Emira mumbles.

"Have some faith in our future sister-in-law.” He grins teasingly at Amity, who scowls. She’s not in the mood. “As I recall, you thought she was pretty cute when we first met too." Edric grins wickedly, eyes sliding to his twin, and Emira's cheeks pink.

Amity's eyes widened as she whips around to look at them.

"What?!"

"What? That was like nine months ago! And you hated her at the time!" she reminds, pointing at Amity. "And that was before I started dating Viney."

"I didn't hate her… I just... didn't know what her deal was yet," she mumbled. Amity should probably be more annoyed that her sister thought her girlfriend was cute but fair, Luz is cute, and at the time they were barely acquaintances, and it had been a while. Emira would never try to take Luz from her.

She sighs and stands, smoothing her dress out once more.

"I need to get downstairs, I want to make sure I'm the one who answers the door…" 

"Ah, right. She might turn tail and run if it's mom," Edric snickers and Emira elbows him as Amity makes a distressed sound in her throat.

“It’s gonna be okay. Luz knows how important this is, and we both know that girl would never run,” Emira soothes.

Amity makes an agreeing sound.

The three hurry downstairs, their father is sitting in the living room, while the sounds of one of the few house staff they keep cooking in the kitchen echoes in the room.

Her father is sitting in his armchair reading from a thick leather tome. Their mother is probably in their bedroom, deciding not to grace them with her presence until their guest arrives.

He glances up as they walk down the stairs, sharp gold eyes appraising the three of them. 

Edric in his dark green shirt and black vest and pants, while his twin wears a knee-length dress the same color as his shirt.

Their father nods in greeting to them as he stands, laying his book on the arm of his chair, and walks over.

"You both look beautiful this evening,” he says to his daughter's before turning to Edric and reaching up to straighten his tie. "Very dashing, Edric." He nods.

"Thank you, father." The three echo with smiles.

Of their parents, their father has always been more sincere in his compliments. They certainly came more often than from their mother, who's breath was often spent criticizing and correcting more than anything. He wasn't around as often as her though, when he wasn’t at work he was holed up in his study, doing work.

He spies the brooch his youngest is wearing and can't recall ever seeing it before. He knows it isn't something he gifted to her, and Amity has never been one to buy such things for herself. It's a very pretty little bauble, he can spy its quality at a glance in the fine detail of the thorns and the cut of the tear-shaped gemstone. 

He reaches out and gently touches the metal with his fingertips.

"Where did you get this, Amity?" he asks. She's surprised by the question.

"Luz gave it to me when we started dating," she said, smiling a little to herself. Alador does not miss this and hums.

A knock on the door makes Amity jump. 

"I'll get it!" she says a little louder than is necessary, and rushes to the front door and takes a breath before opening it.

She's struck speechless by the young woman standing on the other side.

"Good evening, Miss Blight, you look beautiful as ever." Luz smiles at her and gives a little bow, staff in one hand.

"Oh," is all Amity can say, cheeks reddening as she's struck by just how attractive her girlfriend looks tonight in her wine-colored shirt and fitted black vest, pants, and tie, with the cloak hanging off her shoulders. She's struck by the sudden urge to run her fingers through the smooth, shiny, slicked-back hair.

Luz seems to notice the effect she has and her smile turns into a grin as she winks, snapping her out of it.

She then notices the bouquet of lavender flowers Luz is holding in one hand, but among them is a bright red Blood-blossom.

"What are the flowers for?" she asks, stepping aside to allow Luz to walk into the entryway and hang her staff on the hooks by the door.

"You're supposed to bring a gift for your host right? I got these for your mom," she explains. Amity tries not to be disappointed by that, Luz is right, and she's glad that Lilith seems to have taught her some things, how dinner will go remains to be seen.

Luz is an expert in reading Amity though, and smiles, pulling the single Blood-blossom away from the other flowers and holding it out to her.

"As if I would ever come to you empty-handed, mi amor." She smiles coyly, but the quiet words are almost a purr and Amity thinks she might die at the violent shivers it sends down her spine. 

Edric was right. Sometimes Luz is too suave; usually without even trying, when she is trying the effect is lethal. 

Now is so, NOT the time for this, but she doesn't let that stop her from taking hold of the single stem being offered to her and leaning forward to plant a firm kiss on Luz's lips; she has to force herself to pull back. An effort she isn’t sure how she manages. 

"Thank you," she mumbles against them, before standing back up straight. "Are you ready?" she whispers.

"Gosh, I hope…," she mumbles, her confident persona falling away to show just how nervous she really is now that the moment is at hand.

"I believe in you, querida." Amity smiles at her with a confidence she does not feel. She knows her parents, and while she knows Luz, her girlfriend has a tendency to be a wild card at the worst of times. She kisses her cheek and Luz squares her shoulders.

She leads her back into the living room where the twins and Alador are waiting, Odalia has now joined them and Luz swallows thickly at the sight of the Blight parents. They stop in front of them, and gosh is Amity's dad tall.

"Father, Mother, this is Luz Noceda. Luz, this is my father, Alador Blight, and my mother, Odalia Blight," Amity introduces.

"A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Miss Noceda," Alador is the first to speak, holding out his hand. Luz quickly and discreetly wipes her clammy hand on the back of her pants under her cloak before reaching out to shake the much larger hand.

"It's nice to meet you too, Mr. Blight," she says, trying to project confidence. That's what Eda told her to do.

Actually, her adoptive mother's exact words were 'be confident, but take no shit.' Luz is pretty sure that's not the approach she wants to take tonight if she wants to keep the love of her, relatively short, life. In fact, she's pretty sure she'll take whatever shit she has to and smile while doing it.

"Welcome to our home," Odalia says, it's noticeably a little stiffer than Alador's greeting, but Luz soldiers on. She already knows enough about the Blight family matriarch to know that this was where she needed to watch herself.

"Thank you for having me; these are for you." She holds out the flowers. 

There's a flash of surprise in the older woman's eyes, but it vanishes almost as quickly as it appears as she takes the flowers from you.

"How kind, thank you."

Someone clears their throat and Amity only just manages to keep from rolling her eyes.

"And you of course already know my brother and sister, Edric and Emira." Amity introduces the twins with a bit of bite.

"Hey!" They both say, grinning.

Luz smiles and waves.

"Thank you for joining us tonight, Miss Noceda, Amity has told us relatively little, but I have heard some of you, I hope you can enlighten me somewhat this evening," Alador says, folding his hands behind his back as he looks down at her with stern, but curious gold eyes.

"Oh, well, I'll try." Luz smiles, unsure. She isn't sure what he's heard, hopefully, nothing too bad.

He nods, seemingly satisfied with her answer, for now.

A woman chose that moment to walk out of the kitchen and announce dinner was ready. Odalia nods.

"Sia, please take Miss Noceda's cloak, and put these in some water," The Blight matriarch tells the woman, handing her the flowers. She nods and walks over. Luz unclasps it and hands it to her.

"Thanks" she smiles at her. She looks at Luz curiously but gives a little nod. 

With that, Alador and Odalia walk toward the dining room, and the twins both give her a thumbs-up as they follow.

She looks at Amity who smiles at her before they follow. 

Alador sits at the head of the table, Odalia at the other and the twins on the left, Edric next to their father, and Amity and Luz sit next to each other on the right, with Luz sitting to the patriarchs right.

Luz wipes her hands on the legs of her pants as she glances at the table settings, it looks just like how Lilith had it set up at home, but the plates are a clean, shiny white, lacking and chips or worn away paint like Eda’s, and all the silverware matches. She follows Amity’s lead and takes the dark green napkin off her plate and sets it in her lap. She keeps them there nervously as she glances around at the dining hall. She’s been to Blight Manor twice now, but really only the living room and Amity’s room. The dining room is large and spacious, decorated in dark woods and gold embellishments that Luz can only guess is the current fashion of the Isles, or maybe it’s just Blight style; questions to ask Amity later.

She can feel Odalia’s eyes on her and tenses up as those olive-colored eyes judge her silently, but then there are fingers prodding gently at her hand in her lap, and without looking, turns it over to lace her fingers with her girlfriends under the table. Amity squeezes it comfortingly, for her and for herself, thumb running over her knuckles.

The same house staff from before comes out of the kitchen and sets the trays of food in the middle of the table and anxiety shoots through Luz.

She had been so busy thinking about the people at the dinner she hadn't thought about the food itself, she doesn't recognize anything on the table and is suddenly very worried about it.

After her incident with the numberries, she doesn't trust strange foods, and if ever there was a horrible place for her to have some kind of reaction it's here, having dinner with her girlfriend's parents for the first time. 

Luckily she's never had any kind of reaction to meats, only plants, but she knows enough to know that it would be rude to only eat the meat, so she just has to hope, hope that at least if something happens it's something she can hide, like a rash. A trip out like the one had on the mountain would be the end of their relationship for certain.

The serving of food goes rather smoothly, the stuff Lilith had taught her about which way to pass and to offer things actually coming in handy. She’s actually thought that silly, but as she discreetly watches the Blights, that’s exactly what they’re doing.

It's only after they start eating that the oppressive, to Luz anyway, silence is broken by Alador.

"Miss. Noceda, Amity tells us you take all nine tracks at Hexside," he starts, looking at Luz, who looks back up with a mouthful and quickly swallows her barely chewed food and wipes her face like Lilith instructed. 

"Yes, sir." Luz nods.

"Traditionally, students take one track to focus on so they may join that coven upon graduation. What coven would you be planning to join?" He looks at her curiously.

Luz knows to not say she doesn't plan to join one, since it's against the law not to, so she decides on another route, lying. Eda would be proud.

"Probably potions, since it’s my strongest subject,” she says and he nods.

“Amity mentioned you were the top student in the potions track, an impressive feat, especially for someone lacking a traditional aptitude for magic,” he says, carefully cutting his meat.

“Thank you.” Luz thinks this conversation is going well if the way Amity is squeezing her hand gently is anything to go by.

_'you're doing great' ,_ is the silent message. 

“From where on the Isles are you from? I find it strange that it’s only recently that we’ve heard of you.” It’s Odalia’s turn to ask a question. it has a certain edge to it that Luz can’t pinpoint, and she can’t decipher her girlfriends' suddenly harder squeezing or the twin’s glances, so she simply answers truthfully. She’s just going to have to roll the dice some tonight. 

“I don’t, I came from the human realm, through a portal for the summer.” 

“Summer has been over for some time, surely by now, your own family must be missing you?” Odalia asks, Luz is sure the question does not come from any kind of concern. It has a fake syrupiness to it that, had she not been paying attention, she would have missed, but she’s heard enough about Amity’s mother to know to be on edge and listen for the double meaning in everything. 

“I’m sure my mom misses me, but the portal was destroyed in a… accident, so now I live with my mentor, near Bonesburough,” she explains, glossing over the whole, fighting the Emperor and destroying the portal bit. Odalia hums but offers nothing else. 

“And how do you find life in the Isles compared to the human realm?” Alador asks curiously. 

“Exciting, there’s no magic in the human realm, but dangerous, mostly.” She can’t help but chuckle. 

“Yes, the Isles certainly have their fair share of dangers, and potions don’t offer much in the way of offensive magic.” 

“No, but I’ve learned a lot of spells I can fight with, I’ve probably done too much fighting with them,” she admits and Amity gently pinches her leg under the table, a warning to not say much more about her far too frequent battles. None of them would help them here.

Aladror sets his fork gently on his empty plate and regards her.

“Amity showed us some of your magic. A light spell, I was unaware you possessed any for more, offensive purposes.” 

“A few, yeah.” 

“We used some at Grom, to defeat Grometheus,” Amity speaks up and her father looks at her, eyebrows ticking upward at that. 

“Splattered him into little chunks,” Edric speaks up and Emira nods. 

Grometheus could be a rather formidable opponent, Alador was even more intrigued now. 

“I’m rather curious about the capability of these glyphs, perhaps you would indulge me with a demonstration?” he asks, ignoring the pointed look his wife is sending him.

Like Luz could say no.

“Sure, I can show you some, what did you have in mind?” 

“A witch’s duel,” he says, and had she been chewing, she would have choked. Edric is and does, while Emira looks at their father with wide eyes. Odalia is giving him a surreptitiously annoyed look behind her wine glass, seeming to know exactly what he’s thinking, and maybe she does. 

Amity’s, eyes are wide and her hand is squeezing her thigh in a death grip, the message crystal clear.

_‘DON’T’_ it begs.

But Luz is no coward, and she came here with a mission objective, to impress the parents, and she isn’t going to do that by turning down the challenge. If she can impress Alador Blight with her magic then she’s going to seize the opportunity.

“Sure.” she nods. 

Now Emira and Edric are looking at her from across the table like she’s lost her mind. Maybe, she has. Maybe, she’s just that crazy in love with Amity, and she’ll do anything to keep her, even at the risk of being killed by their dad. Odalia is also looking at her curiously, maybe trying to decide if she’s really that dumb or just ignorant. 

“Splendid, come.” Alador smiles and stands from the table. Luz squeezes Amity’s hand under the table before she stands. 

_‘Don’t worry’_

Dinner was over anyway as she followed him, along with the rest of the Blight family to the backyard. 

He holds up a finger and a deep magenta spell circle appears and the backyard is lit up. 

“This, of course, will be a mock battle. I’d like to see how your glyph magic works in practice against one of my abominations,” he tells her as they walk into the middle of the yard, the family remaining on the stone porch, and Luz relaxes some at that, so he wasn’t just trying to murder her. She knows she probably wouldn’t stand a chance against him in a real duel

“Ah, yeah, let's do it!” She grins, holding up a fist, and Alador smiles at her. Luz's grin does not last, as he spins a finger and a nine-foot-tall abomination rises from the ground to tower over her.

_'Mierda'_

“Okay then...” Luz turns serious, rolling up her sleeves, and pulls a few of her cards from her pocket. 

“Are you prepared?” he asks.

“Ready.” Luz nods shoulders tense and knees bent. 

The abomination dashed forward, and it’s much faster than Amity’s, where her girlfriends are sluggish, his runs. She barely manages to jump back out of the way as its fist crashed into the dirt, leaving a divot in the yard.

_‘Okay, don’t get hit!’_ is Luz’s prevailing thought. 

Odalia sighs from the porch.

“I’m going to have to call the gardener back tomorrow…,” she mumbles to herself. 

Amity bites her lip, fists clenched so hard her knuckles are turning white. Of all the different ways she had envisioned dinner going, this had never been one of them. Luz was going to get herself killed! Even if this was a mock battle for her father, he was still much more powerful than Luz. 

Luz slaps a glyph to the ground and vines erupt from the ground, a few impaling the abomination and another growing up beneath her feet and lifting her out of its reach. The vines slow it, but then gelatinous body parts around them and reforms. It’s trying to climb up the vines toward her. She flings several fire spells at it, and it blows into a few large chunks.

“Whoo”

“Go, Luz!”

The twins cheer for her from the porch, despite their mother’s withering look. 

Before she can even think to celebrate, the chunks slide across the yard and congeal back into a solid creature. It grabs the vine she’s perched on and starts violently shaking it, trying to fling Luz from them. She just barely hangs on while activating another plant glyph that snakes to the ground, letting her slide down to the grass, but she’s not any safer, back within the creature’s range, but she knows now what she needs to do. 

She fires off another round of fire spells, blowing it back apart. She just needs a second. She pulls her pen from her pocket and starts rapidly drawing across the exposed skin of her arm. She manages to finish and tap it just as the creature is on her again.

Then, she’s gone. 

The illusion glyph on her arm, turning her invisible. The glyph itself is still visible, but she knows for a fact that abomination’s don’t have the keenest sight, and it certainly can’t see the thin black lines that seem to float in the air. The creature looks around, groaning as she runs across the yard to put some distance between herself and it. Once she’s far enough away she pulls a folded sheet of paper from her pocket and quickly opens it, laying it in the grass, the paper is very much visible, so she breaks the circle on her arm and becomes visible once more. 

It sees her and is quickly crossing the yard toward her. She waits till it’s nearly on her and slams a hand to the glyph and a portal blazes to life across the ground and she jumps in.

The abomination stops, looking down at the portal, confused, then a second portal opens above its head and Luz falls out with a loud battle cry, papers in hand.

She lands on its head and starts plastering as many glyphs as she can to it, it reaches up to grab her but before it can wrap a slimy hand around her, ice erupts from the many glyphs as Luz jumps off, hitting the ground with a thump, and rolling across the dirt, but quickly popping back up in time to watch as ice encase the abomination solid, becoming the world's ugliest ice sculpture.

Alador raised an arm, fingers twitching, but his abomination can’t move, it’s frozen solid.

Luz is victorious.

“That was so cool!”

“That was awesome, Luz!” The twins jog over along with Amity. 

“Are you okay?” Amity is suddenly next to her, looking her over and she grins, some of her hair has fallen in her face but she quickly slicks it back into place.

“I’m fine, Amity.” She smiles reassuringly as her girlfriend pats away the grass and dirt from her clothes.

“You’re so reckless,” she hisses under her breath, glaring at her, but Luz can see the worry shining in her eyes. She grabs the hands brushing the dust from her clothes and gives a brief squeeze before dropping them.

“Very impressive, Miss. Noceda, truly,” Alador says as he walks over, spinning a finger and the abomination melts away along with the ice. 

"Thanks!" She grins, standing proudly. 

Mrs. Blight watches with a frown from the porch.

"I have a book in my study about ancient magics that I have personally never been able to glean much from, perhaps you would like to have a look?" he asks, Amity is surprised by this, few people are ever invited into her father's study.

"Oh, yes, please!" She grins, excited and he nods.

He turns, but pauses and looks at his daughter, who hasn't moved. "You as well, Amity, I certainly wouldn't wish to monopolize our guest, least of all from you," he says and heads toward the house. She looks up, blinking before she smiles and Luz grins at her.

"Come on, I don't think we're supposed to keep him waiting," Luz says and Amity chuckles, shaking her head as they follow her father to his study.

The twins and Odalia don't come to the study with them. Luz can sense there's some kind of dynamic going on here, but she hasn't quite figured it out. Alador clearly is in charge of the family, but Amity talks about him the least of her parents.

When they enter the room, she looks around at the tall bookshelves, filled to bursting.

"Quiet space filled with books…, you are a lot like your dad," Luz chuckles quietly, making Amity's cheeks pink. If Alador hears this he gives no indication, other than the twitching of his mouth.

He pulls a book off a shelf and it looks positively ancient as he holds it out to Luz.

“The chapter I’ve marked in particular is about abomination magic, it offers very little in terms of theory as it is taught today, it only speaks of the magics of the wilds and learning from the Isles.”

She opened it up and it’s filled with the same, indistinguishable writing from the other book Amity gave her that she’s been oh so slowly learning to decipher with Lilith’s help. 

She carefully flips through the pages and spots some drawings that look very glyph like. She sets the book on his desk and digs her pad out of her pocket and carefully copies it down.

_‘Please don’t let me blow up his office…’_ Luz thinks as she taps it. It glows a dark purple and then a tiny abomination is looking up at her from the desktop.

“Abomination summoning glyph!” Luz breathed, grinning down at the tiny abomination that looked back at her with it’s tiny, glowing, yellow eyes. “Umm, how do I make it… do stuff?” She glanced at her girlfriend over her shoulder as she stepped up to the desk, still looking at the tiny abomination with wide eyes. 

“It should be connected to your consciousness by magic… but since you don’t have a bile sac, I’m not sure,” she admits.

“You are its summoner,” Aladror says, and they look up, almost forgetting he was there. “Assert your will over it,” he says. 

Luz hums, and blinks back at her little summoned creature and holds out a hand to it and does as she’s been told, she wills it to climb into her hand, and after a second, it does, albeit a little shakily at first. 

Luz squeals, holding it up to her face.

“It’s so cute… for a goop monster, I mean.” she grins, turning to Amity.

“You finally made your first, complete abomination.” She grinned back excitedly. 

“A tad on the small side, but Amity’s first abomination barely reached her knee.” Alador stroked his beard as he observed the six-inch tall muck creature standing in Luz’s hand. Amity blushed at that. 

Alador seems to be much more openly curious about her magic after she summons the tiny abomination from the book in the glyph and asks her some questions she is only too happy to answer and she talks animatedly about some of her adventures in discovering glyphs, carefully omitting the parts that paint her in a bad light, like the part about borrowing Amity’s wand and accidentally shooting a Slitherbeast with a fire spell and almost getting her mentor and his two oldest children eaten by said monster. 

It feels like she talks for a long time, but Alador seems to be listening intently, occasionally asking questions she can sometimes answer and sometimes can’t, while Amity adds her own bits and commentary, as well as groaning or rolling her eyes at her at all the appropriate times, and then the clock on the study wall chimed ten times, making Alador look up. 

“I was unaware it had grown so late.” Alador stood from his desk chair. “You both have classes tomorrow and Miss. Noceda’s mentor is probably waiting for her.” He walked around the desk, shutting the several books he had and the two girls had been going through. 

“Ah, right. I should get home.” 

He leads them back out into the living room where the twins have been sitting with their mother, who rises when they reappear.”

“Sia, please bring our guests' cloak,” he calls into the kitchen and a moment later the woman returns with the black material, and Luz thanks her and wraps it around her shoulders as the Blight parents and Amity walk her to the door, where she collects her staff

She steps out onto the porch before turning to smile at them. Remembering what Lilith told her to do when she left.

“Thank you for having me, Mr. and Mrs. Blight, dinner was great.” 

“A pleasure, Miss. Noceda.” Alador gives a curt nod.

“Have a pleasant evening,” Odalia says. 

“Goodnight, Luz.” Amity smiles at her in that soft adoring way that always makes Luz’s stomach turn to knots and she smiled as Owlbert’s wings flapped open.

“See you tomorrow, Amity.” She hops off the porch, onto the staff, and then is flying across the yard and over the gate.

"An interesting girl," Alador finally says after Luz has disappeared from sight and she and her parents moved back into the living room where her siblings are sitting on the couch, whispering to each other until they reappear. They sit up and look at them. 

The suspense is killing her and she speaks up.

"So, can I... keep seeing, Luz?" Amity asks tentatively, drawing her father's gaze. 

She and the twins wait on bated breath.

"Blight's only associate with the strongest of witchlings…, " he says as he looks at her, and Amity feels sick. She's heard those words before.

"... and humans," he adds. Amity sucks in a breath. "Your girlfriend is rather formidable for one so young, and knowledgeable in ancient magics, I'm impressed." He runs a hand through his beard thoughtfully. "If you wish, you may continue to see her," he says, not at all missing the way her face lights up with joy before she closes the short distance to hug him. He blinks, surprised for a moment before smiling gently at her and patting the top of her head. 

Alador glances at his wife, who looks less than pleased, but he doubts she will protest, she fully believes that this romance of their daughters is a fleeting, doomed, affair already that will absolve itself in due time. 

Time will tell.

Amity pulls back, trying to school her features into something calmer, but cannot for the life of her keep the smile off her face.

"Thank you, father." 

He nods and turns towards the hall.

"I will be in my study, Miss Noceda gave me much to think about," he says before walking away. Her mother glances at her before sighing silently to herself and follows him.

Amity lets a smile break out across her face and then her siblings are wrapped around her, squishing their faces against hers, both grinning madly.

"Alright, Mittens!" 

"Luz did it!"

Her smile breaks into a giddy grin. She did, she really did. Luz did what she thought impossible, she impressed her father and they were now free to openly date.

"I have to tell her!" She spells her scroll into existence, but Emira stops her. 

"She's probably still flying home, give it a little bit so she doesn't fall off her staff mid-flight," she laughs.

Her sister is right. She'll wait a little bit, she's just so happy.

~  
Luz is exhausted when she gets home, both from playing dinner party and her tumble off papa Blight’s abomination. 

Eda is sprawled out across the couch, snoring when she walks in.” She smiles and twists Owlbert off the top of the staff, he hoots happily at her and nuzzles her cheek before he joins her, while Luz sets the staff in the corner and goes quickly and quietly upstairs.

She hangs her cloak back on its hanger and kicks off her shoes but instead of getting in bed, she opens the window and sets herself on the sill. 

She sighs and loosens her tie, popping the top button that’s been sitting snug across her throat. 

She’s exhausted and has school tomorrow, but more importantly, still has no idea how dinner went and whether or not she can still see her girlfriend. She closed her eyes, leaning her head back, she did her best, the rest was out of her hands.

A few minutes later her scroll began to ring inside her pocket. 

She dug it out and saw her contact photo of a smiling Amity on the front, wanting to video chat. 

She quickly hit the button and she can see her girlfriend’s absolutely giddy face, smiling back at her from her bed.

“Luz, you are amazing!” is the first thing Amity says to her. “My dad said we can keep dating!” Luz grins broadly at the news, some of her exhaustion melting away to make room for elation. 

“Yes!” Luz is grinning stupidly into her scroll. “I was afraid I got carried away there for a while, telling him stories,” she admitted. 

“I think he really liked you. I can’t remember the last time he invited a guest into his study,” she tells her. “That being said, I don’t think my mom did…I don’t think she can see anything other then that you’re human.” she frowned, and Luz shrugged.

“Can’t win em’ all, right?” She didn’t need Amity to tell her Odalia Blight didn’t like her, she was an expert at telling when she was not liked.

“Right, the important thing is we can be together.” Amity smiled. So long as her father was on board, her mother wouldn’t say anything, not outwardly anyway.

“Yeah,” Luz smiled back.

“I need to go to bed, and so do you,” she said in a scolding voice that made Luz chuckle.

“I’m going, I’m going,” she laughed. “Goodnight, Amity. I love you,” she said, watching as Amity smiled at her in that certain way, gold eyes soft and warm, lids low.

“Good night, Luz, I love you too.” She blows her a kiss and Luz grins.

The call ended and Luz smiled to herself as she looked out her window as the moonlight bounced off the sea. 

“Totally worth it,” she mumbled, hopping out of the window and shutting it.

**Author's Note:**

> Yup
> 
> yes, i wrote this very quickly, i was excited to do this one.


End file.
